China’s manufacturing industry is shrinking again In November, it accumulates Eight consecutive months of declineAlthough the rate of decline was a little slower.
According to data issued today, Sunday, by Office of National Statistics (one), the Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the sector is at 49.2 pointsAn increase of 0.2 compared to October data.
This number is equivalent to the expectations of analysts who expected the result to be about 49.2 points. This index, which is the key to measuring industrial dynamism in China, records growth if it exceeds the 50-point threshold and contraction if it remains below that.
Of the five sub-indices that make up the manufacturing PMI, the only index corresponding to delivery times in the expansion zone was at the minimum (50.1). Production reached 50 points, while new orders (49.2), raw material inventories (47.3) and employment (48.4) remained in negative territory.
When differentiating by company size, large manufacturing companies scored 49.3 points, a decrease compared to the previous month, and both medium (48.9) and small (49.1) companies remain below the threshold.
According to statistician Hugh Lihui, the partial improvement is explained by simultaneous progress in production and new orders, or “partial recovery in both supply and demand.”
Hu stressed that “small businesses recorded a particularly notable recovery,” with their best PMI level in six months, and that high-tech manufacturing “continued to expand for the tenth month in a row.” In addition, the Activity Expectations Index rose to 53.1 points, reflecting increased business confidence in short-term developments.
In the non-manufacturing sector – which includes services and construction – the PMI also fell to 49.5 points in November, compared to 50.1 in October, which was below market expectations. The construction sector rose to 49.6, while the services sector fell more sharply to 49.5, both in contraction territory.
The new orders sub-index fell to 45.7, input prices rose to 50.4, sales prices reached 49.1, and the employment rate reached 45.3 points. However, the index of expectations for future activity remained high at 56.2 points, reflecting business optimism.
Meanwhile, the composite PMI, which combines the manufacturing and non-manufacturing sectors, fell by 0.3 points, to 49.7, and remains in contractionary territory.
The outlook for China’s real estate market is also getting worse.. The Chinese Communist Party currently has more than 100 million members, but only 23 of the richest members make up the Politburo, the body responsible for setting the political line for the party, and thus the country.
In 2024, during an emergency meeting, the Politburo adopted new measures aimed at stabilizing the real estate market, which is going through a delicate situation. but, The sector did not respond as expected.
At first, the effect was not clear. There was a recovery in sales at the end of 2024, and at the beginning of this year the decline stopped. In April, a villa with a garden on Shanghai’s exclusive Gulou Street – an area known as the city’s “literary hall” – was recorded selling for more than 1 million yuan (US$140,000) per square meter. This standardized process attracted the attention of tourists and visitors, although it failed to boost the enthusiasm of the rest of the market.
In recent months, the trend has changed and the real estate sector has returned to the negative path. In October, house prices in China’s 70 largest cities saw their largest monthly decline in a year. The short recovery failed to reverse the loss of confidence or halt the widespread correction in the sector.
(With information from EFE)